Read Online The Canton Connection by Fritz Galt - Free Book Online

business suit. Jake recognized his athletic stride.
    It was the Asian guy from the funeral.
     

Chapter 12
     
    The next morning, Jake lay in bed with Amber. She had been a helpful distraction in getting his mind off the case.
    Jake’s cat may have been hungry, but Amber was not. Her skin was darker and gleamed even more healthily after a weekend at the shore. She had worn a skimpy outfit that profiled every delectable curve.
    And he had fallen for her all over again. In fact, the cat was the only creature in his apartment that ate dinner that night.
    He had woken up fulfilled and content, with the sun creeping across the bed.
    “I’m taping an interview today,” Amber whispered in his ear.
    “Who are you grilling?”
    “A banker who lost his payroll to hackers.”
    “You’re not talking about the federal credit union, are you?”
    “I think that’s the one.”
    “Jeez,” Jake said. “Those are the guys that never got my paycheck.”
    She climbed onto him and gave him a good morning kiss.
    But he was already fully awake.
    The apartment door closed behind her, and he rolled over to find his cell phone. He grabbed Michael Epstein’s card and dialed the number. How many cyber attacks were going on anyway? And was Stacy a part of it?
    Epstein was on his headset, already driving to work.
    “Damned sun’s right in my eyes,” he said.
    “Heading in on I-66?” Jake said.
    “Yeah. Speeding along at twelve miles per hour.”
    It was rare for upper management to share such personal details or raw emotions with a special agent, but it seemed like Epstein had a lot of time on his hands.
    “Did you find any connection between Stacy Stefansson and Quantum?” Jake asked.
    “Yeah. I was going to call you, Maguire,” Epstein said. “Our boys looked into it yesterday and came up with some interesting connections with China. It turns out that the overwhelming majority of Quantum’s employees come from China. They’re mostly here on H-1 work visas, but enough of them have become American citizens for the company to qualify as a minority-owned business, which gives them special preference in government contracts.”
    “So some of these programmers are fresh off the boat.” Jake had suspected as much, judging from the makeup of the crowd at the funeral. “What does that mean to you?”
    “You know that China has been trying to hack into our military and government networks for years,” Epstein said. “This is getting them uncomfortably close to the business sector.”
    Jake got to his feet and began to open up his room. He was generally aware of the Chinese government meddling with the internet. After all, didn’t they block sites? They had also flaunted their abilities by rerouting all internet traffic through their portals on occasion, perhaps harvesting the data that passed through.
    He held his forehead to concentrate. “Do you think the Chinese are interested in taking the A root server down, or stealing information from it?”
    “I wouldn’t be surprised if either was true,” Epstein said. “Especially when we found out their connection with Verisign.”
    Jake stood stock still. “Which is…?”
    “Quantum wrote the encryption code for Verisign to access the A root server.”
    Jake eased down to sit on the edge of the bed. “What encryption software? Stacy said the password was entirely in her head.”
    “I heard that, too,” Epstein said. “I was watching your interview with her. But you have to remember that a password is only one element to security. Storing the password on the computer that lets her into the database involves encryption. You don’t want anybody to steal the password off the computer.”
    Jake got that. “So does this mean that Chu had access to the password?”
    Epstein was quiet for a moment, and all Jake heard was the hum of a car engine speeding up and slowing down.
    At last, Epstein came over the line. “We have to assume the worst.”
    “Is there any evidence that